Progress!

At last a visible sign of progress. Worktops in the galley and appliances in place. (Alright, I know it's just for the photo but all the same...)
I've cut a few wooden worktops before but the anxiety of sticking a circular saw into four hundred quid's worth of iroko never goes away. Fortunately all went well, though I have to say that iroko is an absolute b*gg*r to cut. It's not so bad across the grain, though it's very prone to chipping, but the poor old jigsaw really struggled trying to cut along the grain when doing the sink and hob holes. Even with brand new, ultra-sharp blades it barely moved without the added assistance of the 'pendulum' action – at which point it shuddered, leapt and hesitated like an old nag confronted by the Grand National fences.
But we did it and neither the sink nor the hob fell through the cut-outs which is something I always dread. Now all that remains is a run around with the router to clean up the edges and loads more coats of Danish Oil.
After which I suppose I'll have to think about connecting the water and gas so we can actually make use of all this new stuff.

Out on the water at last

If we'd known it was going to take this long I'm not sure we would have started but Nb Harry has finally had its maiden voyage.
Okay it was just a couple of miles from Streethay to Huddlesford and back but we were cruising and everything worked. More or less. Alright, the gear linkage fell apart at one point leaving us stuck in reverse at just the wrong time but apart from that...
Now all we have to do is finish the boat off and while there doesn't seem that much to do, it's all taking so long. Even drilling a hole for the sink waste took nearly half a day - the chosen exit point was right on a heavy steel bearer so I had to drill through that before being able to drill through the hull side for the skin fitting.
Getting the sticky and heavy gear linkage to work took a day of re-aligning everything very carefully and even now it's all hanging on temporary supports. While the speedwheel is completely jury-rigged, pending the invention/arrival of a worm drive transfer box to link it to the engine.
The galley is progressing though. When I last posted - far too long ago - I was contemplating building my own kitchen units. Fortunately for mine and Vicky's sanity we found an excellent solid pine kitchen on Ebay, bought that and it's going in a treat with just a few modifications. We've even ended up with a heap of units left over which we'll sell on.
So what's left to do? Finish the galley, complete the engine wiring, including fit a new alternator and battery charging control system, sort the controls out, complete the central heating. Not a lot really.
Oh, and paint the exterior. We've made a start; the boat's been out on the slip for blacking and we also stripped the roof for repainting with the demonic scabbler tool - what a beast. But will we ever decide what darn colours to paint the boat! Trouble is that we're right beside the footpath through the moorings and everyone who passes has an opinion on our latest colour schemes. Since we've yet to find one we're one hundred per cent convinced of ourselves then all those comments and criticisms hit an easy target and we're away again trying another colour scheme.
So all ideas and suggestions for colour schemes welcome.